Category Archives: Audio

A couple podcast links for you today, since I haven’t been putting out any of my own recently.

Sunday night, I joined our friends at HockeeNight.com for their weekly PuckCast program. We broke down the Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns trade, Brandon Saad staying out of negotiations with the Hawks, the state of the Hawks and much more.

Click the play button to listed to the 90 minute podcast in your browser. The player isn’t working properly so head over to HockeeNight’s page to listen to this podcast.

The download link to the show is here. You may have to create a free account at TalkShoe to download the MP3 file. Itunes users can simply search the podcast section and download the show and subscribe to HockeeNight’s feed there.

Two weeks ago I was the guest on Bill Swerski’s Sports Talk Chicago. This was recorded the same day Brandon Saad was traded to Columbus. Host Shawn and I did an hour that night on the Saad deal, the Blackhawks’ draft, other new players and more prospect related topics.

53 weeks from that day, his friends, former colleagues and competitors assembled to pay tribute to Sassone, one of the greatest sports writers Chicago has known.

I am joined by Al Cimaglia [Sirius/XM Radio] and Brian Hedger [NHL.com] for the bulk of the show. Cimaglia and Hedger swap stories of Sassone’s influence and generosity, while sharing their personal experiences and thoughts on the man each called a friend.

Then I welcome Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune, Sassone’s closest friend on the Blackhawks beat. Kuc and Sassone worked alongside each other from 2007 up until Tim’s passing.

For the first ten minutes of his segment, Kuc helps us dissect the big news of Wednesday. We discuss Patrick Kane participating in his first Blackhawks practice since fracturing his collar bone five weeks ago, and speculate as to what Kane’s timetable for return looks like now.

Then, Kuc shares his experiences working alongside his great friend.

Hedger and Cimaglia stay with me a give their reactions to Kuc’s comments and more on Sassone at and away from the rinks.

Finally, I sit down with Lindsey Willhite, formerly a teammate of Sassone’s at the Daily Herald. Lindsey is now the Public Relations Director for the Chicago Wolves. He shares his experiences meeting and learning under Sassone, following Tim around the day the Blackhawks won the 2010 Stanley Cup in Philadelphia and the time he answered Sassone’s desk phone at the Daily Herald offices and it was Jeremy Roenick on the other end of the line.

In closing, I give my thoughts on the impact Tim Sassone had on me and talk about having the opportunity to work alongside him myself and my regret in the last interaction I had with Tim.

Sunday night, I joined Krista, C.T. and “Forklift” from HockeeNight.com for our annual Blackhawks’ season preview “PuckCast.”

Of course, with the news coming down over the weekend, we spent considerable time breaking down the Nick Leddy trade as well as the controversial signing of Dan Carcillo. We also discussed Teuvo Teravainen, the formulation of the Blackhawks’ roster, Brad Richards already being demoted from off the 2nd line, prospects, the Manitoba Two-Banger and much much more.

–First, I do want to mention that we are doing another season of Fantasy Hockey that you can be apart of.

A few spots remain available for our leagues, and drafts are Tuesday night, so you don’t have much time to get in. Email me at ChrisBlock@TheThirdManIn.com if you want in.

The draft will be held live, online on Monday night. Though, if you can’t join in for the live draft the Yahoo servers will auto pick your team for you. You can also pre-rank all NHL players prior to the draft so you have a better chance of getting the players you want if you can’t draft live.

Puck Chatter Radio

Also, Monday night – the return of PuckChatter~Radio. We have a lot to discuss.

I was a guest on Shawn Hopman’s podcast a few weeks back to digest the fallout from the Blackhawks loss to the Kings as well as previewing the off season moves. You also can listen to that podcast here. On that episode I am on from about 5:30 to the 1 hour 21 minute mark.

–I will be doing a Puck Chatter Radio some time this week as well. Fingers crossed. The last one we did was such an audio disaster that it was almost immediately deleted. I was unaware of the audio problems as we recorded. And, as it turned out, it was all my fault as far as the issues were entirely on my end. But I think I am over that experience now, so we can go forth and take Puck Chatter out of time out.

We covered all the bases, including the trade rumors surrounding the team, what could very well happen, organizational depth needs heading into the draft, who the ‘Hawks may be drafting, big seasons ahead for some Rockford IceHogs and much, much more.

Last night I jumped on the HockeeNight PuckCast for 100 minutes of hockey talk. A lot of things were discussed. Head over to HockeeNight’s site for a list of some of it. If you don’t do so already, check them out for their unique and fun slant on Blackhawks hockey.

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You have to sign up on the Talk Shoe site in order to visit HockeeNight’s page there and download the show.

Al Cimaglia of MyFoxChicago.com and Sirius/XM Radio joined us Monday night to recap the Sochi Olympics, discuss the end of the Mike Kostka era, preview the NHL stretch run and the Blackhawks potential participation in the GM talks leading up to the trade deadline on March 5th.

-Reflections on the recently completed hockey tournament in Sochi
-Team USA players ridiculous explanation for loss to Canada
-Jason LaBarbera talks IceHogs
-Comments from Brandon Pirri and Ted Dent
-Jeremy Morin says missing playoffs last 3 seasons “kinda unacceptable”
-Morin talks focus in trying to get back to Chicago
-Dent discusses Morin’s recent game
-John Tavares injury and should NHL players go to 2018 games?
-Michael Kostka placed & claimed off waivers. What could it mean.
-What could Stan Bowman be setting up to do before the trade deadline?
-Names up for sale
-Hawks areas of need
-Al & Chris debate the Bryan Bickell mystery
-Who Bickell has to thank for his big contract
-Will Pirri be a Blackhawk again?
-And much, much, more

We’d also like to again thank MillerCoors and Molson Canadian USA for supporting our show. Visit and ‘Like’ them on Facebook and learn how you’ll have a chance to be a part of Molson’s 2014-15 NHL season brand packaging.

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**As some have noted to me already, there are some occasional quick snippets where the audio skips or hiccups. I am fairly certain this is an ethernet chord issue (as in, it wasn’t plugged in) and we’ll have it fixed for the next show… which, if all goes well, will be next week.